Under a new draft law, Albania will officially recognize nine national minorities, adding the Bosniak, Egyptian and Bulgarian minorities for the first time. The latter was added consensually to the initial bill in the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee.
The draft law i. e. lays down the right for minorities to use their language officially in interactions with the local authorities and public signs if they make up 20% or more of the local population. A CoE supported proposal to soften this criteria was supported by all DP MPs but the ruling SP votes were split.
Eventually this amendment was adopted along the whole law in the plenary on Friday 13 October by a bipartisan vote.
